Let's make 2011 a healthy new year
This new year, the Alliance for a Healthy Tomorrow has a resolution: to pass the Safer Alternatives Bill in Massachusetts this session. The goal of this bill is to protect public health in our state by requiring that companies choose chemicals that are safe for their employees and customers whenever that's feasible.
Setting a standard for safer choices would benefit companies by reducing health care costs and improving worker safety. Researchers at Harvard and MIT have found that making environmentally friendly improvements to manufacturing can save companies money while encouraging innovation.*
The Alliance for a Healthy Tomorrow held a brainstorming session at our annual meeting at Northeastern University on December 9th.
Engage new people: reach out to youth, college students, cancer survivors, your public health department, community organizations, environmental groups, church members, artists, businesses, parents, medical professionals, civic decision makers, labor unions and legislators.
Influence your legislators: hold petition drives and letter-writing campaigns, set up a meeting with your legislators, go to their office hours, engage business and medical professionals as spokespeople with legislators, and organize others in your community to participate in legislative meetings with you.
Organize and attend community events: hold movie nights or house parties (we can help with ideas and materials); set up a table at an Earth Day event, farmers’ market, or school event. When you do this you can educate people and also ask them to write letters to legislators or sign a petition.
Get creative about communication. Talk about toxics and AHT on facebook, twitter, and blogs. Write Letters to the Editor and editorials or make a video. Some of the ideas included setting up a central web page for educational resources (maybe you'll see more of this on this page soon!), engaging students and others in making videos, and engaging your local businesses and medical professionals to act as spokespeople to help pass the Safer Alternatives Bill. Whatever you do, make it personal!
We'll soon be posting information about concrete actions that you can take to support the Safer Alternatives bill. In the meantime, let’s make 2011 a year when we set the standard for a healthy tomorrow in Massachusetts.
*These quotes appear in the Alliance for a Healthy Tomorrow’s fact sheet, “Government Can: Stimulate Innovation and Enhance Competitiveness.” The researchers are Dr. Michael Porter (from the Harvard Business School) and Dr. Nicholas Ashford (from MIT).
